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ZOCISTY . yrVrS Bl- STwRICA-
'-
UITT & LOViRY
COLUUBIA, MO. 652U
77th Year No. 43 Good Morning! It's Friday, November 2, 1984 3 Sections 18 Pages 25 Cents
Barfield
stops fight
for her Ife
Woman will be
first executed
in two decades
RALEIGH, NC. ( UPI) - Con-densed
murderer Margie Velma
Barfield stopped fighting for her life
Thursday and vowed to go to her le-thal
injection death with dignity in
the nation's first execution of a wom-an
in 22 years
The 52- year-- old soft- spok- en grand-mother
is scheduled to die at Central
Prison at 1 a. m Columbia time Fri-day
for killing her fiance in 1978 by
lacing his beer and iced tea with rat
poison. She also confessed to poison-ing
her mother and two elderly pa-tients
who hired her as a private
nurse.
Gov. James Hunt has denied Bar- fiel- d
clemency, saying her victims
were " literally tortured to death."
Barfield allegedly claimed she
only intended to make her two elder-ly
patients sick. She said she only
wanted to buy enough tune to make
enough money to replace the funds
she stole while nursing the two. Bar- fiel- d
allegedly stole the money to
support a drug habit.
" She wants to die with as much
dignity as the state of North Caroli-na
will allow," defense lawyer
James Little said after Barfield was
rejected by a federal appeals court
and gave up her legal fight for life.
She chose to go to her death wear-ing
pink cotton pajamas and has of-fered
her eyes, kidneys and liver for
transplants.
" As the state plans to expire her
life, she is giving life to others,"
Little said. " This makes her feel her
lie has not been lived in vain. "
Barfield met and held hands with
family members in a prison visiting
room Thursday night Her daughter,
Kim Norton, left wiping tears from
her eyes.
Until Barfield called a halt to her
six- ye- ar legal fight, the last woman
executed in the United States was 58- year- old- Eli-zabeth
Ann " Ma" Dun-can.
She died in California's gas
chamber Aug. 8, 1962, for hiring two
men to kill her pregnant daughter- in- la- w.
Barfield had pea soup for lunch
Thursday, but refused a final meal
of fried chicken livers, macaroni and
cheese, collard greens and cake.
" She requested some Cheese Doo-dles
and a Coke in place of the sup-per
and we gave it to her," Correc-tion
Department spokesman Tom
Hegelesaid.
" Her state of mind is very good.
There's no emotion or anything else
from her," Hegele said.
Barfield calmly ordered lawyers
to drop further appeals after the 4th
US. Circuit Court of Appeals in
Richmond, Va., rejected her plea for
a new trial and denied a stay of exe-cution.
The VS. Supreme Court had
refused to consider her case.
Her defense team fought unsuc- cessful- ly
for a new trial on grounds
Barfield was withdrawing from a
longtime addiction to Valium and
other prescription drugs and could
not properly assist her trial attor-ney.
UPI Telephoto
Barf seld's children, Kim Norton and Ronnie Burke, arrive at prison for a visit.
Killer seemed nice to employers
RALEIGH, N. C. ( UPI) Margie
Velma Barfield, a soft- spok- en pri-vate
nurse who cared for the sick
and elderly, impressed her employ-ers
as a " sweet grandmother" while
secretly poisoning her patients with
rat killer.
In the months leading to her
scheduled execution, debate arose
over why Barfield, 52, killed her fi-ance,
her 74- year-- old mother and
two elderly Lumberton, N. C, resi-dents.
Barfield's children blamed their
mother's murders on drug addiction
brought on by family troubles. But
relatives of her victims said Barfield
was a " cold- blood- ed murderess"
who would kill again if freed from
prison.
" I think she's a serial killer a
killer who sits there and watches
them suffer and enjoys every agoniz-ing
minute of it," said Alice Taylor
Storms, a relative of two of Bar- field- ' s
victims.
Storms met Barfield in 1976 when
she was a live- i- n companion for Dol- h- e
Taylor Edwards, 85, Storms'
great- aun- t
" She seemed like a sweet grand-mother
and a very caring person,"
Storms said. " The house was always
clean and very neat. I was very im-pressed
with her."
Edwards died in March 1977, the
victim of apparent acute gastroente-ritis,
an inflammation of the stom-ach
and intestinal lining.
That month Barfield went to work
for John Henry Lee, 80, and his ail-ing
wife after friends recommended
her as a good, Christian woman.
Barfield required tune off for church
Wednesday nights and twice on Sun-day.
" You couldn't ask for a better
lady," said Lee's daughter, Sylvia
Andrews. " She could cook great
meals."
Lee became ill in Apnl 1977 and
died June 4. His death also was at--
See BARFIELD, Page 8A
Pole sift evidence
for cause of fatal fire
By June Leonard
Mlssourian staff writer
Police investigators said Thurs-day
they found a cigarette lighter
in the bedrQom of the two chil-dren
who died in a trailer fire, but
they stopped short of linking the
lighter andthe fire.
Wilber Van Griffitts, 2, and
Keith Dale Griffitts, 3, were as- phixiat- ed
Monday in a fire that
destroyed their horns at 79 Holly
Park Village, formerly known as
Paddock Meadows Trailer Park.
Their parents, Ronnie and Flor-ence
Griffitts, escaped from the
blaze unscathed
Columbia Police Sgt. John Hei- d- y,
who is headiig the police in-vestigation,
said trie lighter was
found on the floor of the toddlers'
bedroom and " there was enough
newspaper in the room that it
could nave been a possible
source"
Heidy said police investigators
have examined the condition of
the trailer and interviewed neigh-bors
and family acquaintances.
" We found no complaints of
abuse or neglect," Heidy said. " A
lot of peopte weren't even aware
that the coupte had chldrea"
on Tuesday, the investigation
results were submitted to County
Prosecutor Joe Moseley. The re-sults
will not be made public until
Moseley reviews them.
Fire Marshall Don Christian
said the fire started in the chil-dren's
bedroom. However, the
cause hasnotbeen determined. I
i
The Fire Department investiga-tion
will continue with a second
session of interviews with the
and another canvass of rnts nejghborhocl. " We won't
classify the cause of the fire as
' undetermined' until the lab tests
are returned and the remaining
interviews have been conducted,"
Christian said.
Samples of materials within the
trailer at the time of the Are have
been submitted to the Missouri
State Highway and Transporta-tion
Department for analysis,
Christian said.
Moseley said he planned to
meet with police investigators
this morning to review the results
of the Investigation.
The police have submitted no
recommendation to Moseley on
whether any charges should be
filed, Moseley said.
-- w mmii mmum. mmm33xnmBK0gtxaMamimBMimcmMiMmamBmKKjmBaamMi& aeBSBK
NEW DELHI, India ( UPI) - Hin-dus
noted across northern India
Thursday, attacking Sikhs with
swords and clubs, burning buildings
and besieging Sikh temples in an ex-plosion
of rage over the assassina-tion
of Prime Minister Indira Gan-dhi
At least 148 people were reported
killed and 1,000 injured in 19 cities in
12 states only a day after two Sikh
bodyguards killed Gandhi in a had of
submachmegun fire, plunging the
world's largest democracy into
chaos.
Army troops moved into nine of
the hardest hit cities, clamped a 24- ho- ur
curfew in New Delhi and or-dered
troops to shoot on sight to halt
noting that sent black smoke from
scores of fires mushrooming over
the capital.
As her son and successor Rajiv
Gandhi met in emergency session
with the Cabinet, Gandhi's flower- covere- d
body lay on a bed of ice at
her childhood home, the Teen Murthi
House.
Gandhi's funeral was set for Satur-day
Among those scheduled to come
were Secretary of State George
Shultz, British Prune Minister Mar-garet
Thatcher and Soviet Prime
Minister Nikolai Tikhonov.
Police swinging clubs and firing
tear gas pushed back crowds of
mourners who tried to push through
barricades for a glimpse of the body,
setting off a stampede in which 70
people were reported injured
More on funeral, Page 3A
The assassination of Gandhi, who
ruled her nation of 720 million people
for 15 of the past 18 years, sent thou-sands
of Hindus into the streets of
cities across northern India to seek
revenge against members of the na-tion's
minority Sikh religion.
Truckloads of fatigue- cla- d troops
in battle gear poured into the capi-tal,
where at least 15 people were
killed and 700 others wounded.
Helicopters flew overhead to lo-cate
rampaging mobs who left the
streets of New Delhi littered with the
smoking shells of scores of auto-mobiles,
buses and trucks.
Troops also moved into Calcutta,
Kanpur, Allahabad, Lucknow, Be-nares,
Ranchi, Argairtala and Jabal- pu- r
to stem tie Hindu- Sik- h violence.
" The prune minister has given
very strict instructions to all agen-cies
concerned with law and order
that on no account should we allow
these sort of incidents to continue,"
said government spokesman M K.
Wall.
In the city of Bokaro, 150 miles
west of Calcutta, police opened fire
on Sikhs and Hindus battling in the
streets, killing four people, the Press
Trust reported.
In Tmichiappalh, 1,200 miles south
of the capital, a 24- year-- old Hindu
railway worker killed himself by
See MAN, Page 8A
India riots expected,
By Phillip Plotz
Missourian staff writer
A former University professor who
worked with Indira Gandhi said
Thursday that he realized immedi-ately
after her assassination that
there would be riots and uprising in
India
Douglas Ensminger, a rural socio-logist,
said Rajiv Gandhi's success
as India's new prune minister will
lie in his ability to prevent the noting
from becoming a movement
Ensminger, 73, served for 19 years
as the director of the Ford Founda-tion
in India and worked closely with
Gandhi to coordinate the founda-tion's
assistance programs of eco-nomic
and social development in In-dia
Gandhi's father, Jawaharlal Neh-ru,
looked upon the foundation as a
valuable resource, one that created
programs to solve the problems of
poverty m India, Ensiminger said
Gandhi continued the working
relationship with Ensminger be-cause
she viewed poverty as a priori-ty
in her administration, he said.
Ensminger sounded a warning
about the current turn of events. If
Jouglas Ensminger s, u,, tT W8flne'
Worked in India for 19 years
the noting is not controlled, he said,
" There will be great bloodshed, de--
See PROFESSOR, Page 8A
Co- work- ers recall secretary's enthusiasm
By Ctiolo M. Caughron
Mlssourian staff writer
A big, blue button pinned to a room
divider in Room 111 of Jesse Hall on
the University campus reads, " Start
each day with a smile and get it over
with." The button is part of about 190
buttons that belong to the senior sec-retary
of the University's Office of
Administrative Services.
The calendar on her desk laid open
Thursday right behind her
nameplate that reads, " WHAT- SHERNAM- E."
Many of those she
helped never learned her name. Bet
that never seemed to matter to
Jeanne Wait, who worked in that of-fice
since April 1981.
Mrs. Wait, 62, died Nov. 1, 1984, af-ter
she suffered a cerebral hem-orrhage
Wednesday morning.
Some of Mrs. Wait's colleagues in
Jesse Hall missed her presence and
although work carried on Thursday,
their thoughts kept trailing to their
bubbly co- work- er who was gone so
suddenly.
" She was a joyful, wonderful per-son,
and we all thought very highly
of her," Chancellor Barbara Uehling
said.
Mrs. Wait's boss, Dick Otto, said,
I
" I think probably the thing she en-joyed
most about the job was helping
people that stick their head in
asking, ' Where can I find this, where
can I find that.' " Otto is assistant
director of financial planning in the
Office of Administrative Services.
Mrs. Wait wore an orange and
black dress for Halloween to work
Wednesday. Her candy jar, which
sits on her desk among several
plants, was filled with orange slices.
She was in Room 306 of Jesse Hall
working on a report with Tom Har-ris,
chief health professions director,
when she began feeling pain in her
head, Harris said. About 7: 55 a. m. he
called an ambulance that took her to
University Hospital.
" Within 15 to 20 minutes she had
already lost feeling on her left side,
and within one- and- a- h- alf hours of
the initial problem she was co-matose,"
Otto said.
Mrs. Wait was kept on a respirato-ry
machine from Wednesday morn-ing
until Thursday afternoon, when
sle was declared dead at 5: 20 p. m.
Those on the first floor of Jesse
Hall said they kept expecting Mrs.
Wait to bounce into their office
Thursday.
" If Jeanne would come in and I
wasn't at my desk she'd say ' C'est
moi,' so everybody would know she
was here," said Regina Hightower,
administrative secretary in the
chancellor's office.
" She seemed to have boundless en-ergy,"
Harris said.
Perky, bubbly, bnght, intellectual,
humorous and fun are words her col-leagues
tag to the peute gray- haire- d
woman.
" I think the thing I remember the
most about her is her delightful en-thusiasm.
It cheered us all," Vice
Chancellor for Administrative Serv-ices
Duane Stucky said. " You know
the thing striking about her is she al-ways
made work fun."
Her associates said the former En-glish
teacher kept those who worked
in Jesse Hall grammatically correct
" She made us look good," Otto said.
Her popularity went above effi-ciency,
however. Mrs. Wait also was
well known for the Jesse Hall parties
she threw and best remembered for
the fun she had organizing them.
" She always kept this group in the
party mood and so happy," said Car-olyn
Kemper, executive staff assist-ant
to Stucky.
Birthday parties were Mrs. Wait's
specialty.
s
" She made sure that no one was
overlooked relative to their birth-day,"
Otto said. " And when she had
something, it was shared by every-body."
Two years ago, there was one par-ticular
birthday Mrs. Wait was sure
not to overlook and sure everyone
was mvited to attend Stucky's
40th birthday.
Mrs. Wait dressed in black for the
occasion and brought in trumpet
players to play both taps and " Hap-py
Birthday," Stucky and Otto re-called.
Mrs. Wait's friends outside of
Jesse Hall also charactenze her as a
fun- lovin- g friend
" She was just bubbling over with
joy, with life," said Virginia Mutrux,
a friend who attended the Church of
Jesus Christ Of Latter Day Saints
with her.
Mrs. Wait is survived by her moth-er,
Marie Powell of Kansas City,
Mo,; her former husband, Gerald
Wait of Kansas City, Mo.; and two
sons, Scott Wait of Littleton, Colo.,
and Gerald Wait, a student at Oxford
University in England. Services,
which have not yet been announced,
will be held in KansasCity, Mo.

ZOCISTY . yrVrS Bl- STwRICA-
'-
UITT & LOViRY
COLUUBIA, MO. 652U
77th Year No. 43 Good Morning! It's Friday, November 2, 1984 3 Sections 18 Pages 25 Cents
Barfield
stops fight
for her Ife
Woman will be
first executed
in two decades
RALEIGH, NC. ( UPI) - Con-densed
murderer Margie Velma
Barfield stopped fighting for her life
Thursday and vowed to go to her le-thal
injection death with dignity in
the nation's first execution of a wom-an
in 22 years
The 52- year-- old soft- spok- en grand-mother
is scheduled to die at Central
Prison at 1 a. m Columbia time Fri-day
for killing her fiance in 1978 by
lacing his beer and iced tea with rat
poison. She also confessed to poison-ing
her mother and two elderly pa-tients
who hired her as a private
nurse.
Gov. James Hunt has denied Bar- fiel- d
clemency, saying her victims
were " literally tortured to death."
Barfield allegedly claimed she
only intended to make her two elder-ly
patients sick. She said she only
wanted to buy enough tune to make
enough money to replace the funds
she stole while nursing the two. Bar- fiel- d
allegedly stole the money to
support a drug habit.
" She wants to die with as much
dignity as the state of North Caroli-na
will allow," defense lawyer
James Little said after Barfield was
rejected by a federal appeals court
and gave up her legal fight for life.
She chose to go to her death wear-ing
pink cotton pajamas and has of-fered
her eyes, kidneys and liver for
transplants.
" As the state plans to expire her
life, she is giving life to others,"
Little said. " This makes her feel her
lie has not been lived in vain. "
Barfield met and held hands with
family members in a prison visiting
room Thursday night Her daughter,
Kim Norton, left wiping tears from
her eyes.
Until Barfield called a halt to her
six- ye- ar legal fight, the last woman
executed in the United States was 58- year- old- Eli-zabeth
Ann " Ma" Dun-can.
She died in California's gas
chamber Aug. 8, 1962, for hiring two
men to kill her pregnant daughter- in- la- w.
Barfield had pea soup for lunch
Thursday, but refused a final meal
of fried chicken livers, macaroni and
cheese, collard greens and cake.
" She requested some Cheese Doo-dles
and a Coke in place of the sup-per
and we gave it to her," Correc-tion
Department spokesman Tom
Hegelesaid.
" Her state of mind is very good.
There's no emotion or anything else
from her," Hegele said.
Barfield calmly ordered lawyers
to drop further appeals after the 4th
US. Circuit Court of Appeals in
Richmond, Va., rejected her plea for
a new trial and denied a stay of exe-cution.
The VS. Supreme Court had
refused to consider her case.
Her defense team fought unsuc- cessful- ly
for a new trial on grounds
Barfield was withdrawing from a
longtime addiction to Valium and
other prescription drugs and could
not properly assist her trial attor-ney.
UPI Telephoto
Barf seld's children, Kim Norton and Ronnie Burke, arrive at prison for a visit.
Killer seemed nice to employers
RALEIGH, N. C. ( UPI) Margie
Velma Barfield, a soft- spok- en pri-vate
nurse who cared for the sick
and elderly, impressed her employ-ers
as a " sweet grandmother" while
secretly poisoning her patients with
rat killer.
In the months leading to her
scheduled execution, debate arose
over why Barfield, 52, killed her fi-ance,
her 74- year-- old mother and
two elderly Lumberton, N. C, resi-dents.
Barfield's children blamed their
mother's murders on drug addiction
brought on by family troubles. But
relatives of her victims said Barfield
was a " cold- blood- ed murderess"
who would kill again if freed from
prison.
" I think she's a serial killer a
killer who sits there and watches
them suffer and enjoys every agoniz-ing
minute of it," said Alice Taylor
Storms, a relative of two of Bar- field- ' s
victims.
Storms met Barfield in 1976 when
she was a live- i- n companion for Dol- h- e
Taylor Edwards, 85, Storms'
great- aun- t
" She seemed like a sweet grand-mother
and a very caring person,"
Storms said. " The house was always
clean and very neat. I was very im-pressed
with her."
Edwards died in March 1977, the
victim of apparent acute gastroente-ritis,
an inflammation of the stom-ach
and intestinal lining.
That month Barfield went to work
for John Henry Lee, 80, and his ail-ing
wife after friends recommended
her as a good, Christian woman.
Barfield required tune off for church
Wednesday nights and twice on Sun-day.
" You couldn't ask for a better
lady," said Lee's daughter, Sylvia
Andrews. " She could cook great
meals."
Lee became ill in Apnl 1977 and
died June 4. His death also was at--
See BARFIELD, Page 8A
Pole sift evidence
for cause of fatal fire
By June Leonard
Mlssourian staff writer
Police investigators said Thurs-day
they found a cigarette lighter
in the bedrQom of the two chil-dren
who died in a trailer fire, but
they stopped short of linking the
lighter andthe fire.
Wilber Van Griffitts, 2, and
Keith Dale Griffitts, 3, were as- phixiat- ed
Monday in a fire that
destroyed their horns at 79 Holly
Park Village, formerly known as
Paddock Meadows Trailer Park.
Their parents, Ronnie and Flor-ence
Griffitts, escaped from the
blaze unscathed
Columbia Police Sgt. John Hei- d- y,
who is headiig the police in-vestigation,
said trie lighter was
found on the floor of the toddlers'
bedroom and " there was enough
newspaper in the room that it
could nave been a possible
source"
Heidy said police investigators
have examined the condition of
the trailer and interviewed neigh-bors
and family acquaintances.
" We found no complaints of
abuse or neglect," Heidy said. " A
lot of peopte weren't even aware
that the coupte had chldrea"
on Tuesday, the investigation
results were submitted to County
Prosecutor Joe Moseley. The re-sults
will not be made public until
Moseley reviews them.
Fire Marshall Don Christian
said the fire started in the chil-dren's
bedroom. However, the
cause hasnotbeen determined. I
i
The Fire Department investiga-tion
will continue with a second
session of interviews with the
and another canvass of rnts nejghborhocl. " We won't
classify the cause of the fire as
' undetermined' until the lab tests
are returned and the remaining
interviews have been conducted,"
Christian said.
Samples of materials within the
trailer at the time of the Are have
been submitted to the Missouri
State Highway and Transporta-tion
Department for analysis,
Christian said.
Moseley said he planned to
meet with police investigators
this morning to review the results
of the Investigation.
The police have submitted no
recommendation to Moseley on
whether any charges should be
filed, Moseley said.
-- w mmii mmum. mmm33xnmBK0gtxaMamimBMimcmMiMmamBmKKjmBaamMi& aeBSBK
NEW DELHI, India ( UPI) - Hin-dus
noted across northern India
Thursday, attacking Sikhs with
swords and clubs, burning buildings
and besieging Sikh temples in an ex-plosion
of rage over the assassina-tion
of Prime Minister Indira Gan-dhi
At least 148 people were reported
killed and 1,000 injured in 19 cities in
12 states only a day after two Sikh
bodyguards killed Gandhi in a had of
submachmegun fire, plunging the
world's largest democracy into
chaos.
Army troops moved into nine of
the hardest hit cities, clamped a 24- ho- ur
curfew in New Delhi and or-dered
troops to shoot on sight to halt
noting that sent black smoke from
scores of fires mushrooming over
the capital.
As her son and successor Rajiv
Gandhi met in emergency session
with the Cabinet, Gandhi's flower- covere- d
body lay on a bed of ice at
her childhood home, the Teen Murthi
House.
Gandhi's funeral was set for Satur-day
Among those scheduled to come
were Secretary of State George
Shultz, British Prune Minister Mar-garet
Thatcher and Soviet Prime
Minister Nikolai Tikhonov.
Police swinging clubs and firing
tear gas pushed back crowds of
mourners who tried to push through
barricades for a glimpse of the body,
setting off a stampede in which 70
people were reported injured
More on funeral, Page 3A
The assassination of Gandhi, who
ruled her nation of 720 million people
for 15 of the past 18 years, sent thou-sands
of Hindus into the streets of
cities across northern India to seek
revenge against members of the na-tion's
minority Sikh religion.
Truckloads of fatigue- cla- d troops
in battle gear poured into the capi-tal,
where at least 15 people were
killed and 700 others wounded.
Helicopters flew overhead to lo-cate
rampaging mobs who left the
streets of New Delhi littered with the
smoking shells of scores of auto-mobiles,
buses and trucks.
Troops also moved into Calcutta,
Kanpur, Allahabad, Lucknow, Be-nares,
Ranchi, Argairtala and Jabal- pu- r
to stem tie Hindu- Sik- h violence.
" The prune minister has given
very strict instructions to all agen-cies
concerned with law and order
that on no account should we allow
these sort of incidents to continue,"
said government spokesman M K.
Wall.
In the city of Bokaro, 150 miles
west of Calcutta, police opened fire
on Sikhs and Hindus battling in the
streets, killing four people, the Press
Trust reported.
In Tmichiappalh, 1,200 miles south
of the capital, a 24- year-- old Hindu
railway worker killed himself by
See MAN, Page 8A
India riots expected,
By Phillip Plotz
Missourian staff writer
A former University professor who
worked with Indira Gandhi said
Thursday that he realized immedi-ately
after her assassination that
there would be riots and uprising in
India
Douglas Ensminger, a rural socio-logist,
said Rajiv Gandhi's success
as India's new prune minister will
lie in his ability to prevent the noting
from becoming a movement
Ensminger, 73, served for 19 years
as the director of the Ford Founda-tion
in India and worked closely with
Gandhi to coordinate the founda-tion's
assistance programs of eco-nomic
and social development in In-dia
Gandhi's father, Jawaharlal Neh-ru,
looked upon the foundation as a
valuable resource, one that created
programs to solve the problems of
poverty m India, Ensiminger said
Gandhi continued the working
relationship with Ensminger be-cause
she viewed poverty as a priori-ty
in her administration, he said.
Ensminger sounded a warning
about the current turn of events. If
Jouglas Ensminger s, u,, tT W8flne'
Worked in India for 19 years
the noting is not controlled, he said,
" There will be great bloodshed, de--
See PROFESSOR, Page 8A
Co- work- ers recall secretary's enthusiasm
By Ctiolo M. Caughron
Mlssourian staff writer
A big, blue button pinned to a room
divider in Room 111 of Jesse Hall on
the University campus reads, " Start
each day with a smile and get it over
with." The button is part of about 190
buttons that belong to the senior sec-retary
of the University's Office of
Administrative Services.
The calendar on her desk laid open
Thursday right behind her
nameplate that reads, " WHAT- SHERNAM- E."
Many of those she
helped never learned her name. Bet
that never seemed to matter to
Jeanne Wait, who worked in that of-fice
since April 1981.
Mrs. Wait, 62, died Nov. 1, 1984, af-ter
she suffered a cerebral hem-orrhage
Wednesday morning.
Some of Mrs. Wait's colleagues in
Jesse Hall missed her presence and
although work carried on Thursday,
their thoughts kept trailing to their
bubbly co- work- er who was gone so
suddenly.
" She was a joyful, wonderful per-son,
and we all thought very highly
of her," Chancellor Barbara Uehling
said.
Mrs. Wait's boss, Dick Otto, said,
I
" I think probably the thing she en-joyed
most about the job was helping
people that stick their head in
asking, ' Where can I find this, where
can I find that.' " Otto is assistant
director of financial planning in the
Office of Administrative Services.
Mrs. Wait wore an orange and
black dress for Halloween to work
Wednesday. Her candy jar, which
sits on her desk among several
plants, was filled with orange slices.
She was in Room 306 of Jesse Hall
working on a report with Tom Har-ris,
chief health professions director,
when she began feeling pain in her
head, Harris said. About 7: 55 a. m. he
called an ambulance that took her to
University Hospital.
" Within 15 to 20 minutes she had
already lost feeling on her left side,
and within one- and- a- h- alf hours of
the initial problem she was co-matose,"
Otto said.
Mrs. Wait was kept on a respirato-ry
machine from Wednesday morn-ing
until Thursday afternoon, when
sle was declared dead at 5: 20 p. m.
Those on the first floor of Jesse
Hall said they kept expecting Mrs.
Wait to bounce into their office
Thursday.
" If Jeanne would come in and I
wasn't at my desk she'd say ' C'est
moi,' so everybody would know she
was here," said Regina Hightower,
administrative secretary in the
chancellor's office.
" She seemed to have boundless en-ergy,"
Harris said.
Perky, bubbly, bnght, intellectual,
humorous and fun are words her col-leagues
tag to the peute gray- haire- d
woman.
" I think the thing I remember the
most about her is her delightful en-thusiasm.
It cheered us all," Vice
Chancellor for Administrative Serv-ices
Duane Stucky said. " You know
the thing striking about her is she al-ways
made work fun."
Her associates said the former En-glish
teacher kept those who worked
in Jesse Hall grammatically correct
" She made us look good," Otto said.
Her popularity went above effi-ciency,
however. Mrs. Wait also was
well known for the Jesse Hall parties
she threw and best remembered for
the fun she had organizing them.
" She always kept this group in the
party mood and so happy," said Car-olyn
Kemper, executive staff assist-ant
to Stucky.
Birthday parties were Mrs. Wait's
specialty.
s
" She made sure that no one was
overlooked relative to their birth-day,"
Otto said. " And when she had
something, it was shared by every-body."
Two years ago, there was one par-ticular
birthday Mrs. Wait was sure
not to overlook and sure everyone
was mvited to attend Stucky's
40th birthday.
Mrs. Wait dressed in black for the
occasion and brought in trumpet
players to play both taps and " Hap-py
Birthday," Stucky and Otto re-called.
Mrs. Wait's friends outside of
Jesse Hall also charactenze her as a
fun- lovin- g friend
" She was just bubbling over with
joy, with life," said Virginia Mutrux,
a friend who attended the Church of
Jesus Christ Of Latter Day Saints
with her.
Mrs. Wait is survived by her moth-er,
Marie Powell of Kansas City,
Mo,; her former husband, Gerald
Wait of Kansas City, Mo.; and two
sons, Scott Wait of Littleton, Colo.,
and Gerald Wait, a student at Oxford
University in England. Services,
which have not yet been announced,
will be held in KansasCity, Mo.